After viewing some of the 9/11 memorial coverage, I grabbed Bruce Springsteen’s album The Rising and listened to it on my drive to work. One of the songs titled, “Into the Fire” was written (at least I assume) in the perspective of a loved one who lost a firefighter in the Towers that day:
The sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me, and then you disappeared
Into dust
Up the stairs, into the fire
Up the stairs, into the fire
In the midst of that day’s horrific events, I am always deeply moved by accounts of the many men and women who gave their lives to save others: From the office manager who died as he held the stairwell door open so that his coworkers could exit safely, to Todd Beamer’s heroic “Let’s roll”, the countless stories of self-sacrifice and courage reflect a divine strain embedded in the very DNA of humanity.
A quality far more powerful than terror.
Yes, there is something about those firefighters choosing to charge up the stairwells of the burning towers that can stir the soul of the most hardened cynic. Their heroism reminds me of an Old Testament story of three friends who stood
before a tyrant and faced a similar furnace. It is a moment of bravery that affirms, “even if God doesn’t deliver us from your fiery furnace — this is the right choice.”
I think these are the moments that truly resonate across eternity. As Jesus affirms in the Gospel of John, “This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.”
Each September that passes I am reminded that the eternal legacy of those dark hours will never reside in the acts of terror, but in the light of hundreds of men and women who looked into fire and made the choice to put others ahead of their own well-being.
Springsteen’s song articulates why the aims of terror fell to resounding defeat that day:
I need you near, but love and duty
Called you someplace higher,
Somewhere up the stairs, Into the fire
May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love…